Posted 14.03.2020: Review of James Shapiro's Shakespeare in a Divided America: "... you could go through the entire history of colonised America and discover examples of how Shakespeare has played a prominent role in significant political and social shifts in a country he never visited and knew precious little about.You could write a very good book about it. Which is exactly what the Professor of English at Columbia University has done.James Shapiro is an academic who not only teaches Shakespeare, but has also learnt a thing or two himself from the Sweet Swan of Avon about the art of storytelling.His book, Shakespeare in a Divided America, is an unpretentious, fact-filled, lightly-written, meticulously-researched history of seven politically-defining moments that occurred in the US over the past 200 years: www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51827357 . Review by Will Gompertz.

Posted 03.10.2019: [Above] Reviews of the current RSC production of King John at the Swan, Stratford.

Posted 03.10.2019 : Michael Billington on King John at the Swan: : "... while I welcome its cynical, modern take on power politics ... I feel there are times when Aberg's hunger for innovation dwindles into idiocy." : www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/apr/20/king-john-review .

Posted 17.09.2019: A woman who overcame breast cancer has defied the predictions of medical experts by becoming the first person to swim the Channel four consecutive times.Setting off just after midnight on Sunday, Sarah Thomas, 37, swam night and day for more than 54 hours, battling exhaustion and the currents for 84 miles. The strong tide meant her journey was equivalent to swimming 130 miles.She arrived on Shakespeare Beach in Dover at 6.30 this morning with her support crew consisting of her husband, mother and three friends.

​There are numerous references to Dover in King Lear and in one famous episode the disguised Edgar has led his blind father, Gloucester, and deceives him that he is at the top of a high cliff in a remarkable piece of perspectival description that creates a mental picture of the beach at a great distance below them. [See Act 4 Scene 6].